(urth) started my second read of New Sun

[Lane Haygood]

It seems unlikely to me that the Guild would have set up a test for
Severian where someone was killed needlessly; they abstain from unjust
and unnecessary violence.  I think perhaps Gurloes has some idea of
Severian's greater destiny (b/c it is Gurloes that gives him TE and
sends him out into the world with the hint that he might one day
return) and might be in on some plot to put Severian on the Phoenix
Throne, but... and this is the big problem with this theory... if you
were hinging the hopes of your entire planet on surreptitiously
guiding a young man to the throne so that he might travel to Yesod and
complete the trial, why expose him to the dangers inherent in the
journey itself?

One could argue that Severian's life is a series of Dickensian
coincidences machinated by powers beyond his knowledge to fulfill a
certain role, but if those powers are as truly omnipotent as such a
scheme would suggest, why the rigmarole of the New Sun at all?

yvt,
LH